Time Off

"Remember, tight tuck," coached Chris, a plucky zip-line tour guide, as she readied my cables for one of the granddaddies of zips-an 830-foot-long swoop over Rosebrook Canyon in Bretton Woods, N.H. "Use your left hand to straighten out if you start to turn."

Most people with a passion for things automotive can remember a time in their youth when they steamed up a face-size oval on a local showroom's window while absorbing every curve and gleam of a must-have new car.

Business aviation's biggest event-the annual National Business Aviation Association Convention-will be held in Atlanta this year, October 19 to 21. The Georgia World Congress Center will host the exhibits and more than 100 education and maintenance and operation sessions while DeKalb-Peachtree Airport will present the static display of aircraft.

There's likely no finer V8 engine in car showrooms today than the 6.2-liter monster that propels the AMG version of Mercedes' newest E-class. The rising snarls and staccato twitches of the tach will curl the hairs on the back of your neck. It can drop-kick your rump down the highway with a savagery that the four-door body barely hints at.

The biggest dilemma guests face at the Resort at Pelican Hill is making sure they don't get diverted from golf. With 36 holes designed by Tom Fazio, there's enough there along the Pacific Ocean 45 miles south of downtown Los Angeles to hold the interest of the most discerning golf traveler.

To reach most hotels you simply fly or drive there, but to get to Jules Undersea Lodge you'll also need scuba gear. Located at the bottom of a lagoon in Key Largo, Fla., the freestanding resort sits at a depth of 21 feet and is monitored 24 hours a day from a nearby "surface control center."

In the market for a boat? The 25th annual Palm Beach [Fla.] International Boat Show, to be held March 25 to 28, will showcase more than $350 million worth of watercraft-everything from powerboats, bowriders and personal vessels to yachts longer than 100 feet.

Quote/Unquote

“When you get into the larger aircraft it becomes like a hotel, with dozens of staff supporting the plane based in a galley area down below. You have very comprehensive cooking facilities, and on larger aircraft we have looked at theatres, with spiral staircases and a Steinway grand piano. The limitations for what you can put inside a plane are pretty much the limits of physics, and even money cannot always overcome that. Even so, people are still always trying to push [the limits]. ”